It is conventionally known that a seat back and a seat cushion of a vehicle seat is provided with breathability in order to prevent a passenger sitting on the vehicle seat from getting sweaty. A technique related to a breathable cushion and a method of manufacturing the same is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-77482. The technique is directed to provide breathability to the seat cushion having poor breathability. The seat cushion disclosed therein is composed of a breathable pad that is formed of urethane foam, a breathable fabric skin covering a front surface side of the pad, and a non-breathable film layer that is interleaved therebetween.
The film layer is previously integrally layered on the breathable skin such that the skin can be integrally adhered to the pad when the pad is foam-molded. That is, the non-breathable film layer is layered on the breathable skin, so that the skin can be previously set on a die for molding the pad by vacuuming. Therefore, the seat cushion thus formed has poor breathability because the pad is integrated with an upper surface side of the film layer.
Therefore, in order to provide the poor-breathable seat cushion thus formed with breathability, needles are pierced into the seat cushion from a front surface side thereof, so that the film layer can be pierced. At this time, the needles are previously heated such that the film layer can be pierced while being fused. As a result, holes formed in the film layer can be prevented from being closed again.
However, in the conventional technique disclosed in the above-described document, the heated needles are pierced into the seat cushion from the front surface side thereof. Therefore, the skin can be melted, so that texture thereof can be easily unraveled. Further, the holes cannot be reliably formed. This may lead to an inferior appearance of the seat cushion.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a breathable cushion having a good appearance, and a method manufacturing such a cushion.